What Influences Alumni Donations?

Y. Wang

Abstract— With the help of previous studies on people’s incentive to donate, this paper explores why people donate and what influences their decisions of donation, especially why alumni donate to schools. At a first glance, donations seemed misaligned with the common understanding of one’s rational wish to maximize wealth. However, economists have established that people measure wealth in much more complicated ways than simple economic possessions. People donate due to a wish to increase others’ impression on them so they have a better feeling for themselves. Donation to schools is a big, maybe the biggest, part of people donation budgets each year. I found that people donate more to the schools they had or wish to have stronger ties. Specifically, the most important factors influencing people’s donation to schools can be categorized into four major parts: alumni’s financial ability to donate, alumni’s association with their school, alumni’s experience at their schools, and their hope to earn an advantage in college application process for their children.

Index Terms— Alumni donation, social influence.

Y. Wang is with the Cushing Academy, USA (e-mail: yuwang19@cushing.org).